


Darkness and Data

by SquirrelNova



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Card Games, Crossover, Gen, Possession, Post-Canon, and set right at the start of season 2 of vrains, background soulshipping, because i mess with a few things in vrains so they don't have to worry about lightning yet, for gx
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2020-10-29 11:10:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20795690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquirrelNova/pseuds/SquirrelNova
Summary: Link VRAINS isn't infected with an ordinary kind of virus. The light of destruction has invaded the virtual world, and Judai and Yusaku have to team up if they want any hope of defeating it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> GX and VRAINS are my 2 favourite ygo series and there aren't enough crossovers between them so here's one more

It had been a while since Judai had gone to Den city. It had been a while since he was even in Japan, actually, but he tended to visit places like Domino where duelists gravitate or just visit his friends whenever he did. He hadn’t even known Den city had a large population of duelists until Sho told him their pro league would be held there this year.

When he arrived he found out why; the large screen near the city centre showing duels was hard to miss. Glancing at his watch, he figured he had some time to kill so he bought a hot dog from a nearby stand (well, a hot dog and a sausage for Pharaoh, which had gotten him a weird look from the guy working there but he shrugged it off) and settled down to watch the duels.

Honestly, he wasn’t sure what he was watching – some kind of TV show? It looked realistic enough, but the duelists had strange names like ‘Blue Angel’ and rode around on flying surfboards.

“I set Trickstar Lilybell and Trickstar Candina in the link markers. Appear, link two Trickstar Holly Angel!”

That was new.

“You’ve discovered Link VRAINS, huh?” A familiar voice came from behind him. Judai turned to see Edo, trying to hide his identity from the public with sunglasses and an oversized hoodie.

“Is that what I’m watching?”

“You didn’t know? It’s really big in Den City.” Judai’s face stayed blank, prompting a sigh from Edo. “I’ll tell you about it on the way back to my hotel room?”

-

Staying at a five-star hotel was not what Judai expected to do in the near future, but Edo insisted he ‘needed a shower’ and ‘couldn’t go to the league looking like that’, so he was forced to clean himself up while Edo looked after Pharaoh.

It wasn’t like he was dirty. A little scruffy maybe, but he cleaned himself in rivers whenever he could and if not there were always showers in gyms and cheap hotels. But he did admit that Edo’s shower was very nice and he may have spent longer in it than he should have.

When he came out, Edo was restraining Pharaoh from scratching up the fancy furniture and there were some bright blue cards on the bed.

“Are these link monsters?” He asked as Pharaoh was shoved into his arms. The cat immediately settled down, pawing at his chest as he absent-mindedly pet him.

“Yeah, they were released a few months ago. They only work on Sol-Tech duel disks though, since they’re so big in Link Vrains.” Edo handed him one of the monsters - ‘Xtra Hero Wonder Driver’. “This one’s for you.”

“Thanks,” He said, reading its effect. It was decent, but his duel disk was a Kaiba Corp one so he couldn’t use it “You’re here for the pro league, right? Why do you have link monsters when you won’t be able to use them?”

“I do use them.” His friend rummaged around in one of his suitcases, pulling out what looked like a duel disk without the long part you put your cards on and a bracelet with a screen attached. He tossed him the broken duel disk. “Do you want to try out Link VRAINS?”

Judai had some time to kill, and Edo seemed really enthusiastic about all this, so he put the link monster in his extra deck and agreed.

“Into the VRAINS!”

-

It felt like he had teleported. One moment he was in the hotel room with an unconscious Edo who had just showed him how to enter the VRAINS, the next he was at some kind of character creation screen. Apparently the default option was just what he already looked like, so he inputted his own name and continued into the virtual reality system.

The scene changed again. This time he was in a city surrounded by people’s avatars. Dismissing the tutorial, he set about looking for Edo. He didn’t have to look for long, since he was soon approached by someone wearing a dark-coloured hero costume with silver hair and a tattered scarf. He’d clearly put more thought into his avatar than Judai had.

“Hey Edo.” He grinned.

“I thought you had to pay for the non-human avatars.” Edo gestured to something behind him, and it was then Judai realised he had Yubel’s wings. Well, his wings. Their wings. A quick check of his profile showed he also had dual-coloured eyes, fangs, and his fingernails weren’t quite claws but were pointier than usual.

Ever since he and Yubel had fused this form felt more comfortable, but Yubel’s parts weren’t visible to most people since they’re a duel spirit so he just looked like Judai in most dimensions. Turns out he’d forgotten to switch back to human-looking when he got back to this dimension – it was a good job no-one had been around who could see spirits or he would have accidentally scared the heck out of them.

Hopefully he could still change back into his human form in this world. Ignoring the weird look from Edo, he shut his eyes and focused inward. His two souls responded, and suddenly Judai and Yubel were two separate entities. Judai took over, and Yubel retreated back into their card.

Edo blinked at the change in his appearance, but didn’t bring it up.

“So how do we speed duel?” Judai asked, looking around at all the people dueling like he’d seen when he first encountered Link VRAINS.

With some coaching by Edo, he eventually managed to summon his D-board and they found a safe-looking place to practise in. He’d thought it would be similar to flying, but as soon as he entered the stream of data he was blown off the board and fell flat on his face.

Edo laughed at him. Yubel laughed at him. He was not having a good time.

“Ughh...” He groaned, rolling over on the floor “You make it look easy.”

“You tried once. Come on, you’re making us look bad.” Yubel couldn’t hide the fondness in their voice as they appeared as a spirit next to him.

No, that wasn’t right.

Judai looked down at his duel disk to see Yubel staring back: corporeal, tiny, and standing on top of it.

“You look adorable,” He said to them.

“Get back on the D-Board.”

With a huff, Judai climbed back onto the board and tried to steady himself. It took a few tries, but eventually he managed to find his balance and move up to where Edo had been waiting.

“Finally got the hang of it?” Edo asked, and after a confirmation he readied his duel disk.

“It’s been a while since we dueled. I was winning 2-1, right?” The D-board was getting easier to control now, and he was actually looking forward to this duel. The last duel he fought just for fun was… against Yugi? No, there were a few after that but not many; he hadn’t had a good challenge in a while.

“We both know that first duel doesn’t count.” Edo drew his opening hand, and Judai did the same.

“Duel!”

“I summon Destiny HERO – Drilldark in attack position, and use its effect to special summon Destiny HERO - Drawhand from my hand. Because Drawhand was summoned by a Destiny Hero, we both get to draw a card.” They both drew a card from their decks. “Appear, the circuit that leads to my destiny!” Judai watched as something appeared in the air in front of them, and Edo sped off, his two monsters following. Drilldark and Drawhand turned into streams of something digital-looking and flew into the bottom left and right pointers of it. “Appear, link two Xtra HERO Cross Crusader.”

A black and red monster appeared, and Judai grinned. “That’s a link monster? Cool!”

“Just wait until you see what it can do! I use Cross Crusader’s effect to special summon a Destiny HERO from my graveyard.” Drilldark appeared again “Unfortunately, I can only use its effect once per turn, but I can do this: I fuse my Drilldark with Destiny HERO – Celestial in my hand to form Destiny HERO – Dangerous, then I set a card and end my turn.”

“Not bad,” Yubel commented “He got a fusion monster and a link monster out on the first turn. Of course, if he thinks they’ll stick around with only 1600 and 2000 attack points he’s got another thing coming.”

“He’s a pro for a reason.” Judai drew a card. “I’m sure he has something planned.”

“In the next standby phase after it’s sent to the graveyard, Drawhand is resurrected and we both draw another card.” Drawhand appeared in attack position.

Judai had gone from 4 to 6 cards in his hand before he’d even played anything. Sure Edo’s opening play had been good, but it was a mistake to give him 2 extra cards.

“I activate polymerization, fusing Elemental HEROs Burstinatrix and Avian in my hand to make Elemental HERO Flame Wingman! Then I activate fusion recovery to add polymerization and Burstinatrix back to my hand, and activate polymerization again to...” He glanced down at his duel disk and tried to play the card again, even flipping it upside-down at one point “It’s not working.”

“You can only summon monsters from the extra deck into the extra monster zone or a zone a link monster points to,” Edo explained after letting him struggle for a few more moments.

“Oh.”

“You get used to it. Oh, also you don’t have a main phase 2 and everyone has an individual skill they can use.”

“What’s my skill?”

“Dunno.”

“I guess I’ll have to figure it out as I go then.” Judai glanced at the cards in his hand, now having to rethink his strategy. “Time for plan B.”

He did not have a plan B.

“I set a card, then Flame Wingman attacks Cross Crusader. Flame shoot!”

Edo’s life points shot down to 1900, but he didn’t flinch. “I activate my trap: Destiny Signal! This lets me special summon Destiny HERO – Dreamer from my deck.”

“I set a card and end my turn.”

“My turn; I draw! I activate foolish burial to send Destiny HERO – Malicious to my graveyard, then Dangerous attacks Flame Wingman!”

That wasn’t right. Flame wingman had 2100 attack, but Dangerous only had 2000.

“I use Dangerous’ effect. I can discard a card and send a Destiny HERO from my deck to the graveyard to have all my Destiny HEROs gain 200 attack for each Destiny HERO in my graveyard.”

Dreamer originally had 0 attack so was left in defence mode, but the other 2 monsters gained 1000 attack. Flame Wingman didn’t stand a chance.

“I activate Hero Barrier to negate your attack!”

“But you can’t block this next attack. Go, Drawhand!”

Judai had to catch his balance on the D-board as his monster was blown to pieces and his life points fell. He was fine; it was only 500 damage.

He was out of his depth. Honestly he had began to doubt it was possible - especially when it came to dueling - considering how much he’d seen, but there was no alternate dimension where speed duels were favoured over the usual ones, and he’d certainly never flew around on a surfboard before.

“My turn! Draw!”

Despite all this, he was having fun.

“I summon Elemental HERO Stratos and use its effect to add Elemental HERO Sparkman to my hand. Then I fuse Stratos with Burstinatrix in my hand to make Elemental HERO Great Tornado!” A green hero surrounded by wind descended onto the field. “When he’s fusion summoned he halves the attack and defence of all monsters you control! Downburst!”

The attack increase from Dangerous wore off at the end of Edo’s last turn, and his hand was empty so he couldn’t use its effect again, leaving Dangerous with just 1000 attack.

“Great Tornado attacks Dangerous!”

A massive gale of wind struck Edo’s monster, blowing Edo himself back as his life points fell to just 100.

“Not bad - I was starting to think you’d lost your touch.”

“Me? Never. Just a slow start, that’s all. Now show me how you come back from that!”

“If you insist.” Edo slowed down on his D-board to fly side-by-side with Judai as he drew his card “I activate my skill: Destiny’s Grave! This lets me send one Destiny HERO from my deck to the graveyard for every 1000 point difference between our life points.”

“He’s sending a lot of monsters to his graveyard,” Yubel commented, echoing Judai’s thoughts. He knew better than to underestimate Edo.

“I then summon Destiny HERO – Fear Monger. Appear, the circuit that leads to my destiny!”

Here it comes.

Edo’s 3 monsters flew into the circuit that he summoned, and from it emerged a new hero.

“Xtra HERO Dread Decimator! He gains 100 attack for each hero monster in my graveyard with a different name, along with any hero monsters he points to!”

“It’s a good job he’s not pointing to any,” Judai pointed out, immediately eating his words when Dread Decimator’s attack rose to 3600.

“I activate Malicious’ effect from my graveyard. I banish it to special summon a copy of it from my deck.” And of course it was summoned so Dread Decimator was pointing to it. It gained 1000 attack, putting it at 1800. Dread Decimator lost 100 attack from the banished monster.

“Go, Dread Decimator! Dark burst!”

Dread Decimator raised its gun, shooting rapidly at Great Tornado. The force of the impact slammed into him, and he had to summon Yubel’s wings to steady himself so he didn’t fall off the board. His life points fell to 1800.

“Sorry Judai, but this is the end.” Edo smirked as he raised his hand to declare his attack.

“I play my spell – the flute of summoning kuriboh!”

With a sharp trill Winged Kuriboh appeared to block the attack, and Judai made sure to thank his partner as he was sent to the graveyard. This duel wasn’t over yet.

“My turn! I draw!”

He drew the exact card he needed.

“I summon Sparkman, then activate miracle fusion to banish him and Flame Wingman from my graveyard to summon Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman!”

As the spell activated Shining Flare Wingman descended onto the field, its glow piercing the surroundings – so much so that Edo had to shield his eyes. It shone even brighter as its effect caused its attack to rise up and up to a comfortable 3700.

“Shining Flare Wingman attacks Dread Decimator-”

That wasn’t Shining Flare Wingman’s light.

The pure white surrounding them writhed, twisting and curling around his monster’s attack and firing itself at Edo. The attack was already declared he couldn’t stop it he-

A scream ripped itself from his throat as Shining Flare Wingman’s effect activated and the light of destruction tore through Edo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annndd here's chapter 1! I'm actually trying to write chapters in advance for this one so chapter 2 is done soon but it's release date depends on when I've written chapter 3 lmao
> 
> Also I hope the duel was ok to follow. It gets a bit difficult when you have to remember what's where and turns out writing them is also a challenge. My goal is to have every card that's played actually exist unless I really need one for plot relevance but wow is it a lot to keep track of
> 
> Feedback is appreciated :P
> 
> Next chapter: Yusaku has a headache


	2. Chapter 2

There were three reasons why Yusaku usually fell asleep in class:

1\. He was passing all the classes he needed to. Barely, but he was. It wasn’t hard for him to get a passing grade and Ai insisted on helping if he ever struggled, so he used his time more productively instead.

2\. Most nights he stayed up into the early morning or never slept at all. This was a combination of his nightmares and, back before the Tower of Hanoi, his single-minded determination for revenge. It was not a habit broken easily, so he had come to accept his broken sleep schedule and would deal with it the way he saw fit.

3\. If he was asleep, he didn’t have to listen to Shima.

Said person was the reason he was currently wide awake. Apparently there was some pro league coming to Den City that he was really excited about because he was speaking much faster and louder than usual, and it was giving him a headache.

“It’s the first tournament in Den City outside of Link VRAINS and it’s full of pro duelists! They’re not as cool as Playmaker of course, but there are some really cool ones like Edo Phoenix and Manjoume Jun, and-oh! We need to buy tickets before they’re sold out!”

“I’m not going to watch a tournament with you.”

“I can pay for it if you don’t have the money, don’t worry!”

The teacher shushed him, and Yusaku had never been more grateful. It didn’t last long, of course, but he had five minutes before class ended and he just had to hold out.

Ugh, the sleep deprivation was getting to him. He felt like shit.

Finally the class ended, and finally he was able to slip away from Shima. He went straight to Café Nagi, with Takeru tagging along.

“You felt that too, huh?” Ai asked, hidden away in his backpack.

“Yeah.”

The other reason why he’d been wide awake in class was because his link sense had been going mad for the last four hours. Whatever was going on in there was big and demanded his attention, and it was best to deal with it sooner rather than later.

Kusanagi must have noticed the look on his face, because he immediately shut down the hot dog stand and invited them in.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong,” He muttered, typing away on the computer “Nothing big has happened since the Tower of Hanoi, and there’s no signs of any viruses. Everything’s working as usual.”

“That’s not right.” If he sounded more aggressive than he meant to, it was because it felt like his brain was trying to kill him.

“How much sleep did you get last night?” Takeru asked, shooting him a concerned glance.

“That’s not-”

“An hour,” Ai interjected. Traitor. “Maybe one and a half but it was hard to tell.”

“You watch me when I sleep?”

“What else am I supposed to do? Anyway, there’s definitely something wrong with the network but also Yusaku needs a nap.”

“I’m going to log in first just to check.” He walked over to the room he entered the VRAINS in, earning a protest from Ai which he ignored.

“If you do that I’ll immediately log you out again,” Kusanagi said.

“Don’t.”

“I will.”

Sighing, Takeru grabbed his own duel disk. “I’ll join you, and as soon as we’ve finished looking around we’re logging right back out and you’re going to bed.”

-

Link VRAINS seemed perfectly normal.

He hadn’t visited the new VRAINS much, but it seemed exactly how he remembered it. A little busy maybe, but no obvious problems.

“Looks like there’s nothing wrong.” Soulburner surveyed the crowd “Shall we go now?”

“Not yet.” Yusaku summoned his D-board, and as he flew over the crowd a few people noticed. There were more than a few fingers pointing and some people even followed. Ignoring the various duel requests, he continued on.

“Looks like you have a fan club,” Soulburner commented, looking at the crowd behind them.

He glanced backwards - most had dropped off by now, but a small crowd still remained, determined to get a duel with Link VRAINS’ newest celebrity. He wasn’t about to give them one.

One thing he did notice which struck him as a bit strange was that a lot of them wore white. There were a lot of normal reasons why this could be – maybe an event or just a new fashion trend. The sinking feeling in his stomach was probably just the lack of sleep.

Even in the VRAINS his head pounded and he was beginning to think the others had been right. He could barely think, let alone duel, so after one last quick lap of the main area he logged out, promising himself he’d work on this problem first thing tomorrow.

-

When he woke up, the headache was gone but his link sense-induced anxiety remained, now a nagging problem in the back of his head rather than the hurricane of problems it was yesterday.

He glanced at the clock. Shit, how long had he slept? Twelve hours? It was now the early hours of the morning and he had some time to kill anyway so he made himself a quick breakfast and settled down in front of his computer.

The duelists dressed in white had bothered him. Takeru had written them off as overzealous fans and he was inclined to believe him, but it was worth checking anyway so he pulled up the records for some of the ones who had pursued him.

That was weird; they were still logged in.

All of them had entered the VRAINS sometime yesterday were still logged in a day later. No breaks or anything, and a quick search showed some had been admitted to hospital because of this. It wasn’t on a large scale like the Another, so no-one had picked up on it yet, but if this continued it might be. By tracing their duel history he could tell that whenever they won against someone the loser joined their weird white-wearing group and didn’t log out, and so far none had lost a duel. This was definitely some kind of virus, and it was about to spread exponentially.

He grabbed his duel disk, waking up Ai in the process who groaned and rubbed his eyes like he’d actually been asleep.

“Get up,” Yusaku said “We’re going into the VRAINS.”

They logged on, and he explained what he’d found so far.

“Sounds like the Knights of Hanoi to me. You know, they wear white, they’re a bunch of scumbags, they-”

“This isn’t the kind of thing Revolver would do.” Yusaku cut him off “He’s more direct. And it’s not Sol Technologies either because they wouldn’t release a virus into their own system.”

Ai seemed to deflate at that, but it didn’t last long because he perked up at the appearance of one of the virus-infected duelists. Exactly what he was looking for. After a quick check to make sure there were no others around, he accepted the duel, then sped off, forcing his opponent to catch up with him.

Thank goodness for his terrible sleep schedule. It was too early in the morning for anyone to be logged in, so it was easy for him to find a dark corner with no-one near for their duel to take place in.

He would finish this quickly

“First I summon Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn and activate his effect to send the top two cards of my deck to the graveyard,” His opponent said “And since a Lightsworn monster was sent there by his effect he gains 200 attack. Also, because Wulf, Lightsworn Beast was sent from my deck to the graveyard I can special summon him.”

It looked like his deck focused around sending cards from his deck to the graveyard to give his monsters a boost. There were probably a lot more monsters with effects that activate in the graveyard, or that rely on monsters being in there, but he wasn’t planning on letting him use them.

“Level four Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn tunes level four Wulf, Lightsworn Beast! Appear, level eight Judgement, the Dragon of Heaven!”

A huge four-winged beast emerged onto the field, its white fur casting such an intense light that their relatively dark surroundings lit up like it was the middle of the day. Crimson claws flexed with too much malice for a monster like this.

“Playmaker! Once I defeat you you will learn the glory of the light, and then we will be unstoppable!” A twisted smile covered his opponent’s face, like he was in his own world where nothing else mattered except this ‘light’. Yusaku had to find a way to cure this virus soon – even he was starting to get unnerved.

During the end phase Judgement’s affect activated, causing his opponent to banish the top four cards of his deck, and then it was finally his turn.

“Since I control no monsters I can special summon Linkslayer from my hand, and then I normal summon Widget Kid who’s effect lets me special summon Texchanger from my hand. Appear, the circuit that leads to the future! I set Linkslayer, Widget Kid, and Texchanger in the link markers. Appear, link three Decode Talker!”

Decode Talker appeared on the field, its dark colouring causing it to stand out against the white behemoth it was facing.

“It doesn’t have nearly enough attack to beat my Judgement!” The other duelist boasted “Just more proof that you can’t beat the majesty of the li-”

“I banish Linkslayer and Texchanger from my graveyard to special summon Degrade Buster.” He cut him off “And its effect banishes your Judgement, the Dragon of Heaven until the end phase.”

Suddenly his opponent wasn’t looking nearly as smug.

“Degrade Buster attacks you directly!” The other duelist’s life points shot down to 1500 “Decode talker, finish this! Decode end!”

He didn’t stand a chance against his monster’s sword, collapsing as soon as his life points hit zero. Yusaku raced down to catch him, laying him on a nearby island.

“My turn!” Ai exclaimed, his body morphing and expanding until he hovered over the unconscious duelist in the form he used to eat data. A few moments later he had eaten the virus, only to hack it up like a furball right after.

“That’s not data...” He wheezed as he expelled the glowing substance.

“What do you mean it’s not data? We’re in Link VRAINS; everything’s data.”

“Yeah well that isn’t.” After getting the last of it out, he retreated to Yusaku’s duel disk looking like a kicked puppy “And it tastes bad too.”

It wasn’t possible for something in Link VRAINS to not be made of code – that was like something outside it not being made of atoms, but Ai had no reason to lie about this. The formerly infected duelist had now logged out, so this ‘light’ was clearly responsible for his previous state, but if it wasn’t a virus that meant that he knew very, very little about it, and that was something that he really didn’t like the idea of.

-

“Well that would explain why I couldn’t see it from the outside,” Kusanagi muttered, scanning the code in front of him “If we’d found it earlier I would have suggested just beating all the infected duelists, but it’s spreading faster than we can stop it.”

“We need to find its source.” Yusaku had rushed to Café Nagi as soon as he was able, and after explaining the situation Kusanagi immediately closed down the hot dog stand and got to work. They were currently huddled around the computer, with Ai on the desk next to them.

“Looks like the person who’s been logged in for the longest is...” He typed a few things, then bought up a person’s profile “Edo Phoenix. He’s been online since yesterday morning.”

“That’s when our link sense started going off!” Ai added helpfully. Yusaku could still feel it buzzing in the back of his mind, but it wasn’t nearly as intrusive now.

“Who was he dueling?” He asked. Kusanagi pulled up the profile.

There was definitely something weird about this profile. It had only been made yesterday and was set to default, but the avatar was nowhere near default-looking. Unless there was someone out there with dual-coloured eyes, bat wings and odd-coloured patches of skin, something was definitely wrong.

If he wanted answers, he needed to find Yuki Judai.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There won't be a duel in every chapter, for those who are getting a bit sick of them. I do enjoy writing them though and there are a lot more to come. I'm also trying to alternate between POV characters so the next chapter will be another Judai one
> 
> Next chapter: Judai reunites with some friends


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An update! Sorry about the delay - life got in the way. But hey, I'm pretty proud of this chapter
> 
> Also you may notice the rating has changed from G to T. This is purely so I can swear more

He should have seen this coming. The light of destruction had been quiet – too quiet – for too long before now and he’d come back to Japan hoping that it would stay that way. Sure, the light had a habit of possessing people and causing havoc more times than he could count, but he’d always been able to stop those before they began (excluding that time in his second year at Duel Academy, but that was his first time). Usually all it took was some flashy darkness powers and a duel. Not this time.

Shining Flare Wingman had been thoroughly examined after the immediate panic when he logged out. There was no trace of the light on it. Somehow it had found a way to hide itself inside Link VRAINS and had waited for the right time to strike.

He was Yuki Judai, wielder of the gentle darkness and opposite to the light of destruction, and yet he failed to notice it when it was right under his nose. He let his guard down. He failed.

Now Edo was lying in a hospital bed, his mind still trapped in the VRAINS.

The soft beeps and whirs from the hospital equipment were the only sounds breaking the silence in the sterile, white room. Judai had spent the past half an hour making sure the light hadn’t impacted his physical body (it hadn’t – only the mind was infected), and now he couldn’t bring himself to leave just yet.

He held the card Edo had given him as he sat, lost in his own thoughts. The door opened slightly.

“Aniki!”

He raised his head to greet the visitor. “Hi, Sho.”

Sho scampered over to his side, obviously torn between the excitement of seeing him again and the gravity of the situation. “How bad is it?” He asked.

“It’s the light of destruction.”

“Oh.” Sho drew inwards, any trace of a good mood swept away “That is bad.”

“Yeah.”

An awkward silence fell over them. He had to leave. He had to fight the light of destruction.

“Everyone wants to see you.”

“I’m busy.”

“We want to help.”

“I can do this on my own.”

“Aniki, we’ve talked about this.”

“Yeah, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Sho turned to face him, crossing his arms in a defiant manner. “You couldn’t have won without Kenzan in our second year.”

“That was the first time. This is-”

“We don’t want to lose you again!”

“You won’t-” Judai averted his eyes.

“You know what I mean.”

Yeah, he did. He’d left Duel Academy without saying goodbye. He’d gone a year without contact travelling between dimensions. He’d thought no-one would miss him.

When he got back, Kenzan didn’t leave his side for a week, Asuka had given him an earful and made him promise to stick around for a bit, and even Manjoume was almost affectionate. Suddenly Johan had plans to travel to Japan and Hayato had a week off of work and he couldn’t go anywhere without a friend tagging along to keep an eye on him - to make sure he didn’t run off again.

Judai had found Sho in his room that evening crying. They spent most of the night pouring their hearts out – Judai telling him about the things he had only previously shared with Yubel, and Sho confessing that it felt like Judai was trying to sever their friendship. That had been the wake up call, and it ended with them both in tears, him promising to make more of an effort to let his friends back in.

He didn’t want to make Sho cry again.

“Alright,” He said in a small voice “Alright, I’ll go.”

-

“Hang on, Edo got possessed? By the light? That’s brilliant; I’m never letting him live it down.”

Judai sighed, “I don’t actually know if he’s possessed.”

“Yeah but it’s pretty obvious. Oh man, he’s usually so uptight and all – I can’t wait to see him spouting bullshit.” He cleared his throat “Anyway, you came to the right person. If you want to beat this new society of nutjobs, there’s no-one better than Manjoume Thunder!”

Kenzan laughed from the back of the room, “Sure, Thunder.”

“I’m serious! I may not remember much from that part of our second year, but I remember enough to know how they work. Besides,” He rummaged around in his jacket pocket, pulling out a card “I have this fancy new link monster I want to try out.”

Judai’s own link monster sat heavy in his pocket. If he was honest, he only had a vague idea of how to use it; maybe he’d ask Manjoume when his ego shrank a bit.

“Don’t leave me out,” Johan added, with an affirmation from Kenzan and Sho next to him.

“That leaves me to finish organising the tournament then,” The Kaiser said “Good luck, Judai. If anyone can fix this mess it’s you.”

-

He did end up asking Manjoume to teach him how to link summon, which definitely went to his head, but he was a surprisingly good teacher and Judai was always a quick learner when it came to duels. With Yubel’s help, he rearranged his extra deck to include his link monster, and then they were ready to head into the VRAINS.

It was eerily quiet. When he’d gone in the first time with Edo the area had been bustling with duelists, but now only a few people remained and half were already dressed in white.

“Aniki! Check it out! I’m a dinosaur!” Kenzan’s voice came from above him, and sure enough when he looked up his friend was towering above them.

“How are you gonna duel with those tiny arms?” Johan asked, who was regular-sized – the only difference to his appearance being that Ruby Carbuncle, who had been hanging around on his shoulder, was now corporeal. Winged Kuriboh immediately started to play-fight with her.

“Ah,” Kenzan flailed his stick-like arms “I didn’t think of that.”

Sho logged in a few moments later, his avatar looking like him but without his glasses.

“What took you so long?” Johan asked playfully.

“Well I had to make sure no-one here would recognise me. I’m a pretty big deal in the pro dueling world, you know.”

Kenzan leaned down to inspect him, squinting. “You look exactly the same.”

“I do not!”

“You do. Anyway, no-one’s gonna recognise you; you organise the tournaments, not duel in them.” Ignoring the indignant squeak from below him, he moved back up to full height and looked around. “Speaking of pros, what’s taking Manjoume so long?”

“You slackers just don’t have any creativity, that’s all. The great Manjoume Thunder needs an appropriate avatar before he steps foot in the virtual world.”

Said avatar had even spikier hair and was clad in all black, with lightning-shaped highlights on the tight material and his signature jacket was now adorned with spikes on the shoulders. Judai was speaking from experience when he said that they would get uncomfortable really quickly.

Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that.

“Well, that’s everyone.” Johan tactfully changed the subject “What’s the plan now, Judai?”

“We need to find Edo.” He crossed his arms, thinking. Link VRAINS was big, and he’d only seen a very small part of it. How far could Edo have gotten? How far could they get?

“Sounds like a job for Detective Thunder!”

No-one had any better ideas, so he led Manjoume to the area where he had dueled Edo. Now that Link VRAINS was being overrun and duelists weren’t sticking around to get brainwashed, it was a wasteland of a place, with nothing but a stream of data running through it. It took a good ten minutes of inspecting the place before he finally let out a scream of frustration and flopped onto the floor.

“There’s nothing! It’s like nothing ever happened!”

“This is a virtual world, so maybe there’s some… data you missed?” Judai offered, earning a glare.

“We need to look at this differently. There’s got to be some kind of base they’re operating out of; if we find that then we find Edo.”

“Like the white dorm!” Sho added, Manjoume nodding in agreement.

“This is an online public space so maybe someone’s already found it? We could look through some forums,” Johan added.

“Sounds like a plan!” Kenzan stomped his massive dinosaur feet, startling Sho in the process “And if I stay in here I can use my extra height to get a better view.”

The last thing Judai wanted was for any of his friends to stay logged in for longer than necessary, but they were almost as stubborn as him at times. It was best they find Edo soon so they can finish this quickly.

“Sho, can you go with Kenzan so you can duel for him if he needs it?” Sho nodded, and Kenzan leaned down to let him onto his back “Manjoume, Johan, can you log out and search the internet for any clues?”

“You’d better not be sidelining me,” 

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Manjoume scoffed but logged out anyway.

Johan turned to him “What about you?”

“Oh, I’ll be searching in the VRAINS too.”

“On your own?”

“I can take care of myself. Besides, I won’t be alone.”

His friend gave him a knowing smile. “Alright, alright. Good luck.” And with his signature warm smile he also logged out. Sho and Kenzan waved goodbye shortly after.

With a sigh, he took a moment to compose himself. Yubel’s presence, quiet but a constant comfort, sat in the back of his mind, and they worked together to summon their wings. He shot into the air, flying as high as he possibly could and switching to his dual-coloured eyes when his regular brown ones couldn’t distinguish the tiny duelists below him. The world was wide and varied, the white-wearing duelists spread out like dandruff, and it was hard to miss Sho riding on Kenzan’s back, charging down any opponent that challenged them.

The light existed in patches and spots throughout the VRAINS, increasing in brightness where its followers congregated. He was hoping there would be one blinding spot that would be easy to recognise, but of course it wouldn’t be that easy. Things were never that easy anymore.

Still, he continued on. Up here was too far for most people to reach, and he revelled in it. Here he could spread his wings and feel the wind whip through his hair, keeping an eye on the ground as he did so. There was something exhilarating about flying, and Judai would never not be wonderstruck.

Would his darkness powers work in this world? The light seemed to be exactly the same, but there weren’t any actual shadows here - just pixels. He’d test it out if he wasn’t in a hurry.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by the wind picking up behind him. Purple pixels blew past, and he froze mid-air. This was… a data storm? They reached this high?

Turning around, he noticed something even more surprising. There was a person – clad in a green and black bodysuit, so he wasn’t controlled by the light – following him. Honestly, he didn’t know how to respond. Should he react? Should he ignore him and hope he goes away? He really didn’t have time to deal with this kid, but if he followed him to where the light was concentrated…

His question was answered when the other sped up, flying in front of him to cut him off. Wow, he looked really serious. This wasn’t what he needed right now.

“Uh, can I help you?” He asked, trying to be at least a bit friendly.

The teen readied himself, holding up his duel disk. “Duel me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turns out the best way to improve something is to throw manjoume into it. He's so much fun to write and you'll definitely see more of him
> 
> Next chapter: The duel!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long!! Life decided to kick me in the nuts multiple times so I was kinda in a creative slump but things are better now. The one good thing about this quarantine is I've got way more time to write so (and i say this with the most crossed fingers) hopefully it means I'll be able to write this more. No promises though
> 
> This chapter is one long duel, and Judai and Yusaku finally get to interact! Too bad it's not under the best circumstances, but hey at least we get a nice card game out of it

When they’d researched Judai, they found very few records. Apparently he’d visited the hospital a lot as a child, but they dwindled as he got older until there was basically nothing on him until his school days. The few things in his Duel Academy records – notably a portion of his second year where he was labelled as missing, and again in his third – were the most recent things listed about him. Link VRAINS was the first thing he’d ever made an account for, apparently, and every scrap of information Yusaku found about him only raised more questions.

It was his fifth time combing through his Link VRAINS profile for even a hint of his location when his status switched to _ online. _ He breathed a sigh of relief; this just made things a lot easier.

The problem? Judai was flying far above where the data storms reached. There was no way his D-board would be able to get him up there without help.

Yusaku stared expectantly at said help, who stared back.

“Do you really like looking at my pretty face that much, Playmaker?” Ai winked at him, which he ignored.

“Make a data storm to get us up there.”

“Alright, alright,” He whined, but did it anyway “You could at least ask nicely.”

They climbed into the sky, virtual wind whipping through his hair as they charged forward. Judai moved quickly, but he moved quicker, darting through the sky as he eventually caught up to the winged figure and then cut him off.

“Uh, can I help you?” Judai asked, clearly taken aback.

“Duel me.”

The new Link VRAINS let the winners of duels make trades. All he needed to do was beat Judai, and then he could get the information he needed.

“No.”

That… wasn’t what he expected. Shit. Judai tried to fly around him, but he followed his movements so he still blocked his path.

Ai raised a hand dramatically to redirect the data storm so it circled around him to barrage into Judai, pushing him back as he tried desperately to fly against the current. There were a few moments of struggling before he eventually came to a stop, summoning his D-Board and changing his avatar to get rid of his wings.

“You’ve made your point,” He grumbled as he put enough distance between them for their fight “But I’m in a hurry so let’s make this quick. _ Duel! _”

“My turn!” Yusaku said, glancing down at his hand “I summon Draconnet who’s effect special summons Protron from my deck. Now I special summon Backup Secretary from my hand because I control a cyberse monster. Appear, the circuit that leads to the future! I set Draconnet, Protron, and Backup Secretary in the link markers. Appear, link 3 Encode Talker! Then I set a card and end my turn.”

“Alright then, my turn! Draw! I activate Polymerization-”

So he used a fusion-based deck. He didn’t attempt to link summon first either, which meant that his deck probably wasn’t optimised for dueling in Link VRAINS. Not that Yusaku wanted to underestimate him, but it was good to know.

“I activate my counter trap - Cynet Conflict! Because I control a ‘Code Talker’ monster your spell is negated and you can’t activate any copies of it until the end of the next turn!”

Judai blinked, taking a moment to compose himself. “Well, I don’t need Polymerization to fuse. Since I control no cards I can activate NEXT from my hand, which special summons Elemental HERO Neos and Neo-Spacian Dark Panther! Now contact fuse to form Elemental HERO Dark Neos!”

Dark Neos appeared: a black, humanoid monster with sharp wings and sharper claws. The dark motif was promising at least; Yusaku had honestly been getting sick of all these light monsters lately. Although Neos was light attribute so he still kept his guard up.

“His effect negates your Encode Talker’s effect while he’s on the field. Now, go Dark Neos! _ Wrath of Black Neos! _”

Encode talker was torn to bits and his life points fell by 200.

“Now I equip instant neo space to Dark Neos so he doesn’t shuffle himself back into the extra deck in the end phase and end my turn.”

His monster would have shuffled itself back into the extra deck in the end phase.

His monster – which had a mediocre effect and required two specific monsters on the field to summon, therefore making it much harder to bring out – _ didn’t even stay on the field without a specific spell. _That’s terrible! That’s a horrible effect! Were his cards really outdated or something? Why did he still use them?

“My turn! Draw! I summon Clock Wyvern and use its effect. By halving its attack it special summons a token! Appear the circuit that leads to the future! I link summon link 1 Talkback Lancer!” The tiny monster brandished its spear fiercely “It lets me tribute another cyberse monster to special summon a ‘Code Talker’ monster from my graveyard. I tribute Clock Wyvern to special summon Encode Talker!”

“Hey, that’s a pretty good combo!” Judai commented “And all with one monster too? Looks like this’ll be more of a challenge than I expected!”

“Judai, we’re in a hurry.” A new voice came from his opponent’s direction. He almost missed it at first, but a figure rose out his opponent’s duel disk with crossed arms and a sour expression on their face. They didn’t look like an ignis, and judging by Ai’s perplexed reaction they weren’t.

“I know,” Judai whined, but his smile proved he didn’t mean it “But he’s really skilled and if I’m dueling him anyway I might as well enjoy it.”

“Just finish this quickly.”

“Hey!” Ai interjected, leaning forward “We’re not going down that easily! Just who do you think you are anyway?”

“This is my partner: Yubel.” His opponent angled his duel disk towards them so they could see. ‘Yubel’ was about the size of Ai, but they looked nothing alike. Judai’s earlier appearance was very similar to this creature, which he was sure wasn’t a coincidence, and they were clearly very close. Was this a different kind of A.I.?

“Partner? Playmaker and I are way better partners!” Ai bragged “I’m the best at being a partner!”

Yubel’s head whipped up, their three eyes glaring at Ai with such contempt that even Yusaku was unnerved. “I have been Judai’s guardian for hundreds of years. I have fought thousands of adversaries at his side and you will not be the last. Your bond with your partner cannot begin to compare to our love.”

Huh. So they were in a relationship, which meant that Yubel was probably either an A.I. with free will or something else entirely - both options were _ not _ something he wanted to deal with on top of this mess.

Ai spluttered, trying to come up with a witty response when Yusaku cut him off. “Talkback Lancer attacks Dark Neos!”

Judai’s eyes widened. “But it has less attack points.”

“Encode Talker’s effect! It prevents Talkback Lancer from being destroyed and I take no battle damage, then it gains attack equal to your monster’s!” Encode Talker surged with power, it’s attack rising to 4800 as it charged forward, crushing Dark Neos easily as Judai’s life points shot down to 1700.

“Yeah!” Ai cheered “Take _ that! _”

“Instant Neo Space special summons Neos from my deck when the monster it’s equipped to leaves the field.” Judai took a moment to regain his balance before drawing a card “First I activate Pot of Greed which lets me draw two cards. Then I play the field spell Neo Space and summon Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird and use it’s effect! Honey Suckle!”

A flower sprouted from the one card he had in his hand, which the humanoid bird stuck its face into causing his opponent to gain 500 life points. He had to admit it was on the weirder end of duel monster animations, but there was probably weirder out there; it wasn’t the strangest thing he’d seen today.

“Now I contact fuse again! Appear, Elemental HERO Air Neos! His effect means that he gains attack equal to the difference between our life points.” That, along with the boost from Neo Space, raised its attack to 4600. “Now I attack Talkback Lancer!”

Yusaku braced for impact; the force of the blow crashed into him, causing Ai to cry out, but he held his ground against the birdlike monster. He survived the attack – that’s all that mattered. 400 life points was more than enough to turn this around.

He drew a card, then glanced down at his hand. That attack value was a problem, and the only chance he had at getting rid of it was risky. Still, it was his only option.

“I set a card and end my turn.”

“That’s it?” Judai drew a card, then set it “Well, it’s been fun. Air Neos, attack!”

_ Now. _

“I activate Cynet Crosswipe! It lets me tribute Encode Talker to destroy Air Neos!”

His opponent sighed. “You’re not letting me get away that easily, are you?”

“Not until you tell us what you know about these light guys!” Ai would have been threatening if he wasn’t so tiny.

There was a pause where Judai seemed to contemplate Ai’s statement, at one point glancing at Yubel whose face was unreadable but there was clearly some form of communication between them because when he looked back up to meet Yusaku’s eyes his expression was firm and unwavering.

“They’re dangerous. You should log out and let me handle this.”

Yusaku had never been the hero – never the first person to charge into danger to help others. People seemed to think he was, but fighting the Knights of Hanoi was motivated by revenge, not selflessness. When he’d stopped the Tower of Hanoi it had been for his own reasons.

So, logically, he had no reason to keep pursuing this. If Judai was facing this light virus then why should he get involved?

There were three reasons why he wasn’t going to concede:

  1. He didn’t trust Judai. Sure, he was more skilled at dueling than he let on, but he had no way to tell if he genuinely wanted to help or not. And even if he did, was he a hacker? Did he have any programming experience? If not, he had no hope of succeeding.
  2. Sol Technologies wouldn’t be able to fix this mess, and the Hanoi wouldn’t want to. No-one else knew Link VRAINS as well as he did, so he was the only one left to face this.
  3. Too many people had already fallen to the light. It was only a matter of time before someone he knew got infected, or someone _died _because they stayed logged in too long. Deep down Yusaku knew that if that happened when he could have prevented it the guilt would follow him to the grave.

“You’re not seriously considering doing that, are you Playmaker?” Ai whispered to him. He shook his head. “Good. That’s what I thought.”

“If you won’t tell me what you know,” Yusaku locked eyes with Judai “I’ll take it from you. I activate twin twisters, which lets me discard a card to destroy two spell or trap cards on the field. I discard Dotscaper to destroy Neo Space and your face down card!”

For the first time in this duel, Judai looked genuinely threatened. Was Neo Space that important? No - what was his face down? He pulled up his opponent’s graveyard.

Super Polymerization? He’d never heard of it before, but it looked powerful. Really powerful. He just dodged a bullet.

“Dotscaper’s effect lets me special summon it _ from _ the graveyard. Appear, the circuit that leads to the future! I set Dotscaper in the link marker. Appear, link 1 Linkuriboh!”

The tiny monster emerged, fierce as ever, and he commanded it to attack directly.

“Ow,” Judai muttered at it kicked him in the head “I can’t even be mad – your kuriboh is too cute.”

That appeared to set Linkuriboh off as it jumped up and down, letting out a series of chirps in an effort to look intimidating.

“_Language!” _ His opponent reprimanded the small creature while he started his turn “There are children present.”

“You’re the child,” Ai whispered up at him, giggling.

“You’re literally ten years old.”

“I resent that.” His partner huffed, pouting in a very childlike manner “I’m _ at least _ older than you.”

“That’s not how time works.”

_"Technically _ I’m ten years old, but mentally? At least eleven.”

“I’m sixteen so that still makes you younger.” This was not the time to be bickering with Ai. They were in a very serious duel and this was _ not the time. _

“Well good for you, Mister Able To Physically Age.”

“Because Bubbleman is the only monster in my hand I can special summon him, and because he’s the only card I control I can draw two cards.” Judai continued the duel. “Bubbleman, attack Linkuriboh! _ Bubble Shoot!”_

“Linkurboh’s effect! I tribute it to make your monster’s attack 0 until the end of the turn!”

His opponent grimaced, calling off the attack and ending his turn. If that attack hit it would have been over, and since he had no cards in his hand or field, everything relied on this next draw.

“I summon Swap Cleric and then link summon link 1 Link Disciple! Swap Cleric’s effect lets me lower Link Disciple’s attack by 500 to draw a card.” This was a risk he didn’t want to take, but he had no choice. What was the difference between 500 and 0 attack points when one hit would kill him anyway?

Apparently luck was finally on his side. “I banish Dotscaper and Clock Wyvern from my graveyard to special summon Degrade Buster, and because Dotscaper was banished I can special summon it. Appear, the circuit that leads to the future! I set Link Disciple, Degrade Buster, and Dotscaper in the link markers. Appear, Link 3 Decode Talker! Now attack Bubbleman! _ Decode End!” _

It wasn’t enough to get Judai’s life points down to zero – he still hung on at 700 – but it was enough. He had Decode Talker now, and he knew that his ace monster would be able to pull through. It had to.

“My turn! I draw!” His opponent had three cards in his hand, but no cards on his field. “I summon Elemental HERO Solid Soldier who’s effect lets me special summon Elemental HERO Sparkman from my hand. Appear, my circuit!”

The empty circuit appeared in front of him, which seemed to shock Judai as much as it did Yusaku. He recovered quickly though, setting his two monsters in the link markers. “I summon link 2 Xtra HERO Wonder Driver!”

The monster was blue with gold highlights and stood proudly on the field, brandishing its staff. Judai admired it for a second, then looked over at him. “That could have been flashier, but pretty good for my first time, right?” Apparently he wasn’t supposed to respond because Judai continued with his turn. “Now I activate the spell Legacy of a HERO which lets me return two fusion monsters from my graveyard that list an Elemental HERO as a material to the extra deck in order to draw three cards. And then I’ll play this: Fake Hero! It lets me special summon Neos from my hand, but he can’t attack and returns to my hand in the end phase.”

Wonder Driver’s staff started to glow, and it started summoning something. “When a HERO monster is summoned to a zone Wonder Driver points to, he lets me set a ‘polymerization’, ‘fusion’, or ‘change’ spell from my graveyard.” The shape solidified as the picture on it became clearer, and panic shot through Yusaku as he recognised it. “I choose Super Polymerization!”

Judai stared intensely at Yusaku’s monster as Yubel sunk down into his duel disk, and for a brief second he thought he saw his eyes flash green and orange. There were a few moments of silence before he snapped himself out of his thoughts. “Hey, I never got your name.”

Why wasn’t he playing the Super Polymerization? Did he not have a monster to fuse into? Then why would he go through all that effort to get it back?

“It’s Playmaker.”

“Playmaker? Weird name. Anyway, I’m Judai.”

“I know.”

“Huh? Wait, how do you know that?”

With a sigh Yusaku crossed his arms, but before he could reply Ai blurted out “Because he’s Playmaker! The most famous hacker in Link VRAINS! All thanks to his incredible partner – who’s name is Ai by the way, thanks for asking.”

“Sorry, Ai; I was gonna ask for your name next.” Judai smiled sheepishly, then looked back to Yusaku “Do you want to team up?”

Where had this come from? Was it because he was a hacker? Judai could easily have ended the duel here and left without telling him anything, and he’d told him to give up on pursuing the light earlier. Why the sudden change of heart?

The benefits to teaming up were obvious: Yusaku would obtain the information about this ‘light’ that he needed, hopefully along with an explanation for the other weird things that seemed to surround Judai. He still didn’t trust him though, so he’d have to be on his guard.

He didn’t like to work with people, but in this case the pros outweighed the cons.

“Okay.”

“Sweet!” His opponent placed his hand over his duel disk, signalling his surrender. Everything on the field disappeared and the duel ended as Judai rode his D-board over to him. “This is gonna be awesome! If you’re as good of a hacker as your partner says you are then we’ll have no problem finding Edo.” Noticing the look on Yusaku’s face, he added “I probably owe you an explanation now, huh? Just be warned: it’s kind of weird.”

-

“I don’t believe you.” Yusaku deadpanned.

“It’s true! Honestly!”

As they spoke they had travelled to and eventually landed on the nearest floating island. It was empty, thankfully, and they currently stood facing each other with Yusaku processing this new information.

It was all too nonsensical. Duel spirits he could understand – Ai had been friends with the cyberse monsters and Linkuriboh acted like it was alive, plus Judai had shown him Yubel’s card – but being a fusion of a human and spirit? Not to mention the light and darkness which apparently fought each other every now and then by possessing people (or, he supposed, one possessed people and the other just stayed in the same person who apparently kept getting reincarnated).

“Your appearance is probably just you changing your avatar, and the light is a virus.” He was being harsh on purpose. In reality he’d already proven wrong both of these points, but he still wasn’t completely on board with Judai’s explanation.

“I can prove it to you outside Link VRAINS.”

“I’m not meeting with you offline.”

“What? Then how are we supposed to-”

“I’ll contact you if I find something.” Yusaku turned away from him, ready to log out.

“Hey, wait!”

He faltered at the hand that had been placed on his shoulder. “What?”

“You really care about Decode Talker, don’t you?”

That was… a weird question. Maybe he should be used to it by now though. He hadn’t expected Judai to be so perceptive, but it was true that Decode Talker was his favourite monster.

In that duel he had tried so desperately to summon it, even though in the end it hadn’t pointed to any monsters so couldn’t use its effect to power itself up or protect his cards. It hadn’t been his only option, and it wasn’t his best one either, so why had he done it?

“You don’t need to answer that.” Judai chuckled “I can see the answer on your face. I just wanted to tell you that he cares about you a lot too.” He took a step back, holding two fingers out in front of him “Gotcha! See you soon!”

And then he logged out, leaving Yusaku alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that the timeline may not line up since Yusaku gets some of the code talkers later than when this takes place but I also do not care. He's hard enough to write duels for
> 
> Next chapter: Judai buys coffee. Twice.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys have left so many nice comments recently ;_; thank you so much. You're all amazing

Judai was at the hot dog stand again, sipping his drink while he collected his thoughts. According to Manjoume, Playmaker was a big deal in the world of Link VRAINS. Not only was he a skilled hacker, but he’d also been the one to take down the Tower of Hanoi (which Judai was quite mad that he missed; it seemed like something he could have helped stop). Not only had he become a hero of sorts, but he also was extremely elusive and no-one knew anything about him.

There were rumours, of course. With a bit of digging he found theories ranging from almost accurate to downright absurd, but nothing came close to finding out his identity, which was a problem because he wasn’t willing to wait for Playmaker to come to him when it would be way easier to work together in person.

A chirp came from behind him as Winged Kuriboh fluttered into view. Judai wasn’t the only one who liked this hot dog stand – the tiny monster had befriended another kuriboh belonging to one of the people who worked here.

“Are you done playing now?” He asked his partner, who responded with an affirmative trill “Let’s get going then.”

Pharaoh happily buried himself into his bag, gnawing on the last of his hot dog, and then they headed off.

At least Den City itself seemed relatively normal. People were milling about, doing whatever normal people did, and a local kid was stalking him.

Okay, maybe ‘kid’ was a bit harsh; he couldn’t be more than three years younger than him. He’d thought kids of that age knew better than to stalk weird people, but it wasn’t the first time and it wouldn’t be the last either. At least this guy was better at it than most (was that a good thing? He should probably be worried about that) – too bad for him he had three extra eyes to watch his back.

Judai took a few random turns just to be sure as Yubel moved closer to his stalker. He was going to be very lost after all this was over.

“He’s a duelist but he can’t see spirits,” They said, hovering directly in front of him “His monsters are hiding though.”

Usually when he was followed it was because the person had seen one of his spirits and curiosity had gotten the better of them. It would lead to a conversation about monster spirits and maybe a duel, but never end badly. If that wasn’t this guy’s reason then what was?

He really hoped he wasn’t going to rob him because they were surrounded by darkness and he didn’t want to accidentally go overboard.

Great, now he was at a dead end. With a sigh, he turned around to face his stalker, who had hidden himself but not well enough.

“Why are you following me?” There was no response “I know you’re there; stop hiding.”

“Be careful,” Yubel muttered, hovering next to him with a scowl on their face.

_ ‘I’ll be fine,’ _ He responded mentally, but their fierce protectiveness continued. There was a subtle shifting sound from where the other person was hiding, then footsteps dashed away into the darkness.

-

It wasn’t like he was trying to make going to the hot dog stand a habit, but it was a good place to go when he needed to think and he wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity for some good food and a way to keep an eye on Link VRAINS via the large screen overlooking the plaza.

(Link VRAINS was doing awful. It was plagued with the light – from the brainwashed duelists to the crumbling infrastructure to the monsters that didn’t move quite right when summoned. Logging in was crushing, but he had to do something so he searched and searched but there was still nothing and Link VRAINs was so big and he was so, so tired.)

“The usual?” Kusanagi asked as he approached.

“Yeah, but I think I’m gonna need a large coffee as well.” He chuckled nervously “Late night, y’know?”

“Yeah, I do.” Putting the hot dogs on to grill, he added “Just don’t make it a habit. I know someone your age who has a nasty habit of staying up late and honestly sometimes I wonder how he’s still standing.”

“Probably a lot of caffeine,” He said as his coffee was poured.

“Probably,” Kusanagi agreed “Anyway, here’s the hot dogs for you and Pharaoh and one large coffee.”

With a quick ‘thanks’ he paid and sat at one of the tables outside the stand. Pharaoh happily jumped out of his bag, settling on one of the seats as he passed him his hot dog. He should probably actually buy him some cat food, but for now his furry companion was happy with a share of whatever he had.

Kusanagi was a nice person. At this point Judai had just accepted that he was odd, but Kusanagi never commented on how he had a cat with him at all times and seemed to talk to himself a lot, instead striking up friendly conversation and just treating him like a normal person. It was a welcome break from the madness that surrounded him.

The screen was playing some kind of duel monsters talk show that he barely paid attention to as he looked around. Most people were just passing through, offering the screen a glance or two before moving on with their day, but there were one or two people who stopped to watch it. The only other person at the hot dog stand sat there with a cup of coffee, intense green eyes focused on his laptop.

Wait, this guy seemed familiar.

Judai took a sip of his own coffee and promptly burnt his tongue. Where had he seen him before? Maybe he was a regular at this stand? Yeah, he’d seen him here before, but he was missing something and it was on the tip of his tongue-

“It’s the kid that followed you the other day,” Yubel said.

Oh yeah; he’d almost forgotten about that. What a coincidence.

Now that he was looking for it, there were the faintest hints of spirits – powerful ones – hanging around him. They didn’t materialise themselves, but they were dutifully keeping watch over their duelist nonetheless.

The other guy briefly glanced up from his screen, meeting Judai’s eyes for a moment before quickly averting them. Shit, he’d been staring.

“You’re not seriously thinking of talking to him, are you?” Yubel hissed in the back of his mind “We don’t know anything about him! He could be dangerous!” But he’d already stood up and started walking over.

“You’re a duelist, right?” He said with his best non-threatening smile. The other person winced slightly as he was spoken to, but didn’t stop typing.

“No I’m not.” Was the blunt response a half-second later.

“You have cards though?” He continued, not letting something as small as introversion stop him.

“If I say ‘yes’ will you go away?” He rummaged around in the school bag that lay next to his feet, pulling something out and laying on the table in front of him “This is my deck. I don’t use it much.”

With a slight glance to make sure it was okay to look through it, Judai picked up the deck. It was simple – no extra deck and every monster being level four or lower. The spells and traps were okay but not amazing. It was the kind of deck you’d use when you first started dueling.

The spirits in this deck were distant. They would come when their card was played, but for now they had better places to be. This wasn’t right. Where were the ones that congregated around him like a shield? Even now they were sizing him up – ready to fight if necessary; the monsters in this deck had nowhere near that connection to the person in front of him.

“Cool deck!” Judai said, handing it back to him “I have some spell cards that could work pretty well in it if you want any.”

“...Thanks.”

“My name’s Judai by the way. I’ve been coming here a lot recently so if you ever want to duel let me know!”

There was a moment as the other person seemed to think something over before he responded. “I’m Fujiki Yusaku.”

Fujiki Yusaku was definitely hiding something, but he wasn’t going to pry. Some secrets were best left unsaid, so if he wanted to hide his real deck that badly then so be it.

Sitting down in the chair next to him, Judai pulled out his spare cards and laid them out on the table. “So there’s no room for it in my deck anymore, but there’s this combo I used to do with Mirage of Nightmare and Emergency Provisions...”

-

Judai ducked behind a virtual rock, mismatched eyes watching the light-infected duelists. This area was crawling with them - eerily watching and waiting for any poor fool who dared get too close. It was blinding to look at.

Every inch of him was telling him to get out of there, which meant that he was getting close.

"How many are there?" Manjoume whispered from next to him.

"Five. Six if we're not careful."

"We can take six measly duelists."

"Yeah, if you want to attract the whole crowd." He frowned, eyebrows furrowing. Getting one person through the crowd was hard enough - let alone four and a dinosaur - but it was good to have them there at least. It was selfish of him, but they gave him a sense of security he really needed right now in the heart of enemy territory.

Traces of the light lingered everywhere around them, creating an almost ominous glow. In this middle of nowhere corner of the network it was concentrated so strongly that it physically hurt to be there.

"Want a distraction?" Kenzan wiggled his tail playfully.

"Good idea." He raised his duel disk, summoning Neos to his side. They shared a nod, then the monster dashed into the crowd. One by one the duelists turned to look at him, then gave chase. "I can't keep this up for long," He whispered to his friends "Hurry!"

Following his gut, he raced forward. The group spread out slightly searching for something - anything - that would make this risk worth it. It had to be worth it; he couldn't have put his friends in danger for nothing.

“Aha! I found something!” Came Manjoume’s triumphant voice before being abruptly shushed by Sho, who received a scowl in return.

Everyone rushed over, Judai having to peer over Sho’s head to get a look at it. It kind of looked like a portal between dimensions, except instead of a hole it was more of a small scrape. Pixels shimmered around it, illuminated by the light that slipped through the cracks. This was definitely what he had been looking for.

Carefully, he reached out to touch it. At first it shuddered and bucked under his powers like reality usually did when he tried to create a portal, then it shoved him backwards and he recoiled with a sharp hiss.

“Aniki!” Sho cried out as Kenzan caught him with his tail. He groaned in pain, using his wings to push himself back upright.

“Weird,” Manjoume mumbled, lightly poking at it “It tingles.”

“Are you okay, Judai?” Johan asked, quickly looking him over. After verbal confirmation, he turned back to the thing. “I’ve never seen a portal you couldn’t access.”

“Maybe it has a firewall?” Came a new voice from behind them.

Claws bared, Judai whipped around. The speaker flinched, raising his hands in surrender.

“Who are you?” Judai growled “You shouldn’t be here!”

“I’m on your side! I’m Playmaker’s friend.”

“Playmaker has friends?” He didn’t mean to sound so astounded – it just slipped out. He’d met up with Playmaker once or twice after their duel and so far his impression of him was that he was definitely the talented loner type.

“I’m Soulburner.” The other person grinned, then gestured to his duel disk which held a similar creature to Ai. “And this is Flame.”

“My name in kanji means ‘indomitable soul dream,’” Flame added “Pronounced ‘Flame.’”

“Those are some cool names,” Johan said “I’m Johan and this is Judai, although I guess we should come up with some aliases, huh?”

“They’re not really required – Playmaker just likes to stay anonymous and I kind of copied him.” Soulburned grinned sheepishly, blatantly ignoring his partner who looked very excited that someone else thought his name was cool. “Hey, is that a cat on your shoulder?”

“This is Ruby! She’s my partner.”

From that, the two launched into excited conversation.

"Guys..." Judai winced in pain as he felt his connection to Neos forcefully severed. He'd already been pushing himself by keeping it up for so long, and he could feel exhaustion wearing down at him.

On the horizon was a horde of duelists, all staring down at them with murderous intent.

"Soulburner," He said, voice rough "Do you have any way to get past the firewall?"

Soulburner's face paled as he followed his gaze. The horde was closing in on them and fast. "No, but Playmaker will be able to."

They were surrounded. There were _ hundreds _of them.

One reached out to grab at his arm, murmuring something about the light as he jerked away. Next to him, Johan had summoned Amber Mammoth but he was barely making a dent in the crowd. Kenzan roared as one of them jabbed their duel disk in his tail.

"Everyone log out!" Soulburner roared.

Johan disappeared in a flurry of pixels, followed by Manjoume and then Sho and Kenzan. Judai and Soulburner locked eyes.

"Tell Playmaker to contact me as soon as possible."

And now he was stuck waiting on someone else when this should have never happened. He hated feeling useless. He hated how Link VRAINS had weird rules that even with all his inter-dimensional experience made no sense. He hated that he had to rely on someone who he couldn't even contact on his own.

Soulburner gave him a sharp nod and logged out.

He closed his eyes, steadying himself. Hands clawed at his face, his arms, his duel disk, and his insides writhed at the onslaught of light around him. Next to him, Winged Kuriboh chirped, pushing them back as much as he could.

He had to get out of here. His friends were waiting for him.

With one last burst of energy his eyes flared gold. Shadows rallied around him just enough to push away the duelists that were too close and too bright and _ still trying to grab at him, _ and he finally - _ finally _ \- logged himself out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: We get to see Edo again :)


	6. Chapter 6

There was a sinking feeling in the pit of Yusaku's stomach.

It took him and Kusanagi less than fifteen minutes to create the code needed to bypass the firewall after Takeru had arrived at the hot dog stand, frantic and out of breath. After that they'd wasted no time logging back in, sending a message out to Judai to tell him where to meet.

Soulburner understood the gravity of the situation; not as much as he did but he still understood. Every so often he would fidget, eyes flicking over to him and back like he wanted to talk but didn't know what to say. Honestly neither did he, but he never did small talk even on a good day so he just let the silence linger.

Flame was in his eyeball form, hiding in Soulburner's duel disk and keeping watch. The island they were on was small and high up - perfect for meeting without any interruptions - but even here the occasional duelist would still pass by.

Ai, who was always the first one to speak his mind in any situation, was quiet. In the tense silence he could just make out the worried sounds he was making.

They were running out of time. Where the hell was Judai?

"There's an unknown duelist approaching on our right," Flame said. What he failed to mention, Yusaku noticed as he looked over at them, was that said duelist was a _ T-Rex. _As it got closer he could make out four other figures next to it, including the familiar shape of Yuki Judai. These must be his friends that Soulburner had mentioned.

He really hoped that they were going to take this seriously because changing your avatar to a dinosaur is all fun and games until you need to duel someone with your life on the line.

"You must be Playmaker. I'm Johan, and this is Kenzan, Sho, Manjoume, and of course you already know Judai," One of them said, gesturing to each of his friends in turn "It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise." He gave them a curt nod. Even though they were clearly unfamiliar with the virtual world, the group at least looked determined. If they were competent duelists they should be able to handle themselves; so long as they didn't get in his way, he could appreciate the extra manpower.

Judai hovered just below the dinosaur, looking like shit. His clothes were scuffed and even torn in some places, and as his mismatched eyes sized him up he noticed the large bags under them. He averted his gaze.

"Here," He said, a ball of code forming in his palm. It split into five spheres, each floating over to one of them "This will let you bypass the firewall."

From there they made their way over to where the others had found the portal. Stealth was nearly impossible with seven people and a dinosaur, but that didn't matter because there was no sign of any possessed duelists.

"Lucky!" Kenzan squealed, charging ahead.

"Don't just run off!" Sho yelled, racing after him "It could be a trap!"

Not a single trap was sprung as they sprinted forward, which was even more worrying. From the back of the group he contacted Kusanagi to check that there was nothing unexpected there, and a moment later he confirmed it.

"They're expecting us," Ai whispered. He nodded mutely.

"Worse," Judai flew over next to him "It's inviting us in."

"We don't have a choice."

Raising his hand, Judai's eyes flashed and the portal expanded in size so that they could pass through it. Reality - or as close as you could get to it in the virtual world - shimmered and pixelated around it. There was light coming from the other end.

"Hurry! I can't hold it open very long."

Yusaku was the first to enter, followed quickly by the others. By this point he was more than used to navigating the virtual world, but he couldn't help the shudder than ran down his spine. He couldn't afford to fail here.

They emerged on solid ground. Shattered remains of digital buildings littered the area and bottomless canyons scarred the ground like stab wounds, but the most striking thing was the beacon of cold light in the distance, staring down at them.

"What is that? Where are we?" Sho squeaked.

"We're in the original Link VRAINS," He growled "And _ that _is the Tower of Hanoi."

Unlike the original tower which had been an ugly pink, this one was a pure white light. The rings around it were half-formed or even missing in some places, but they were slowly completing themselves. It was only a matter of time before it was finished, and then the virtual world - along with everyone inside it - would be annihilated.

"Aren't you astute? I'll be sure to thank your buddy Revolver for this wonderful idea once I've finished dealing with you pests." A figure emerged in front of them, his sharp blue eyes shining with malice.

"Light of destruction!" Judai roared "Give Edo back!"

So this man, clad in a gaudy white suit, was who they'd been looking for. Yusaku readied his duel disk.

"Get on your knees and beg then, _ Haou. _Maybe I can switch him out with one of your little friends." Edo made a show of inspecting their group, his gaze lingering on him for a bit too long "Manjoume was so loyal last time, and I'm sure Johan wouldn't mind being possessed again. And if I could get the famous Playmaker to see the light-"

"Don't you dare touch him you creep!" Ai yelled, throwing his arms out to the side like he could shield him with his tiny body.

"Duel me you bastard!" Hissed Judai, shaking from barely-contained rage and eyes a fierce gold.

"No." And then he turned and walked away. Judai let out a stream of swear words, chasing after him when the ground beneath them rumbled and tore itself apart. Yusaku barely had the chance to react when the world went white and the ground fell out from under them. Someone screamed.

A split second later he was consumed with pain. With a groan he forced himself off the cold concrete and looked around: this was where he'd fought Spectre if the ruined bridge was anything to go by. On the other side of the chasm, Manjoume was swatting at something yellow.

"Are you okay?" Ai asked.

He nodded, ignoring the throbbing pain in his leg; it looked like he'd landed on a particularly nasty pile of rubble when the light had split them all up, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. The real problem was how he was going to cross this gap.

There was a yell as Manjoume got his attention. He was holding up a card with three small monsters hovering around it. A moment later they fused into... something. Whatever it was, it was coming towards him.

Of all the things he'd been prepared to face today being held under the arm of a large, round monster wearing a thong wasn't one of them. Regardless, it picked him up and leaped across the chasm in one smooth motion, depositing him on the ground before being dismissed.

"What was _ that?" _ He asked, ignoring Ai's hysterical giggling "And how did you summon it outside a duel?"

"That was Ojama King!" Chirped the yellow thing that had just reappeared before being swatted away again.

"Please, anyone can summon outside a duel so long as you two have a close bond or some shit."

"Aww Aniki, you do care!"

"Get lost you twerp."

Two more small monsters started to bicker with him, so Yusaku decided to ignore them and keep moving forward but he'd barely taken a step when he was interrupted by a sharp "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"Isn't it obvious?" He turned to look behind him "I'm going to stop the Tower of Hanoi."

"Not alone you're not. You're injured."

"I'm not injured."

"Bullshit: you're limping. We're gonna find the others and then we can take out that tower together."

"I don't care what you do."

Another stab of pain shot through his leg but he didn't falter; he didn't come this far just to make pointless diversions.

In the distance there was a roar as Kenzan reared his head, a tiny blue blur that had to be Sho riding on his back. A little further away a massive serpent-like creature was summoned that he recognised to be Rainbow Dragon. They all seemed to be handling themselves just fine.

"Don't come crying to me when we have to come and rescue your brainwashed ass." And then Manjoume ran towards his friends.

Maybe he didn't understand how devastating it would be if the tower were to be activated, but Yusaku was more than aware: no-one logged in would survive, including all of them; Ai would never reunite with his fellow ignis; the resulting power outage would short-circuit life support machines and cause accidents the world over. He would duel again and again - and he would _ win _ \- as many times as it took to prevent this from ever happening.

He couldn't afford to lose, and he definitely couldn't afford to _ wait. _

A few canon-fodder duelists tried to stop him as he sprinted ahead, but he crushed them easily. It didn't matter that they were increasing in number as he got closer because he was a tidal wave of fury and they were just obstacles getting in his way.

Eventually he made it to the base of the tower, heart pounding in his chest. His leg had gotten worse and his shoulder was throbbing from where a stray piece of debris had hit it, but he had his deck and that was all that mattered.

"Light of Destruction!" He bellowed "Show yourself!"

There was a moment where he was met with silence, then the pillar of light in front of him parted like a curtain to reveal a smirking Edo. "So rude! Is that any way to treat your soon-to-be leader?"

"Go fuck yourself."

"No thanks. I assume you're here for a duel?"

Yusaku shifted his stance, holding up his duel disk. "If I win you stop the Tower."

"You think I'll agree to such one-sided terms?" Edo walked towards him "What's in it for me?"

"If you win," He said, shifting away from him and suppressing a wince as the movement agitated his injuries "I'll become one of your possessed duelists."

"Playmaker!" Ai squawked.

He shot him a tense smile "Don't worry; I won't lose."

"Well you've certainly done a shit job convincing me, but I've got time to kill before Judai gets here so how about a wager? One life against another."

"You're betting your own life?" Ai frowned.

"Nope," Edo gestured behind them "I'm betting _ his. _"

The last thing Yusaku wanted to do was take his eyes off that bastard, but he looked anyway. Approaching them was Soulburner, clothes bleached a stark white and eyes glazed over. The faux-friendly smile he gave him sent shivers down his spine. This was wrong. This was all wrong.

"If you can win against Soulburner here, I might even give him back." His voice was dripping with smugness "But if you lose..."

"Where's Flame?" Ai shouted and panic shot through Yusaku as he realised the other ignis was nowhere to be seen.

Edo motioned towards Soulburner, who scoffed. "He didn't understand the brilliance of the light, so I got rid of him."

That sent daggers through Yusaku's heart because Takeru would never do anything to hurt Flame and how _ dare _ the light do that to him? How dare it strip him of his compassion and make him hurt his loved ones? Takeru was warmth and passion - always there for him no matter what - but the person in front of him was so, so cold.

Ai let out a strangled cry that was somewhere between a yell and a sob. The possessed Soulburner ignored it.

Yusaku had known the risk - they all had - but seeing his best friend like this hurt like hell_ . _ Takeru was one of the strongest duelists he knew, so if he had lost then what chance did the others have?

He never should have run off on his own.

Narrowing his eyes, he tried to at least come up with a plan. There was no way to verify whether or not the light's threat was genuine, but if there was any way to free Takeru it _ would _ be through a duel.

And of course there was still the massive fucking problem of the Tower of Hanoi looming over them, which he knew he should be focusing on but his traitorous mind kept circling back to Takeru and how he was possessed and it was _ his _ fault and-

"Is the undefeated hero of Link VRAINS getting cold feet?" Edo taunted. Rage surged through every part of him, red-hot and screaming out for revenge, and he made up his mind: he was going to kill this bastard.

"I'm not dueling Soulburner," He growled, "We're dueling right here, right now."

"Well, if you insist. You'll need this though." And he threw a card towards him, which he caught on instinct. He didn't even have a chance to look at it before it erupted with a fierce glow, whips of light shooting out towards him. He dropped it, trying to dart backwards but he put weight on his bad leg and it collapsed beneath him.

The light surged towards him but Ai pushed back, emerging from his duel disk to form a shield that protected him from the worst of it. He didn't dare move: they were surrounded on all sides and it was closing in fast.

Ai cried out in pain as the light became too much to bear. One moment all he could see was his black and purple partner, the next his vision was engulfed in light. The world went silent. His body _ burned. _

"_Playmaker! _" Someone screeched and something slammed into him.

He watched in horror as he saw Judai where he'd been just seconds ago, eyes blazing gold as the light beat back what few shadows he was able to control. It was too much; he was going to be overwhelmed. They locked eyes.

"Run!" Judai yelled, voice raw with desperation "It can't hurt me! _ Go! _"

He didn't want to run. He wanted to stay and fight and save Judai and Takeru and everyone else but he _ couldn't. _He couldn't do any of that. He'd failed. He'd lost.

Ai looked up at him from his duel disk, parts of his body burned away by the onslaught. If he stayed here, more people would get hurt.

He logged out.

-

"So," Judai said, forcing confidence "Now it’s just us."

Every inch of Judai's body was in agony but he sure as hell wasn't going down without a fight.

Shadows reared up behind him, surging forward to protect their master. They were ripped apart in an instant but he didn't falter, sending wave after wave of affronts that died as soon as they were formed. Slowly but surely he pushed forward, closer and closer to the monster wearing his friend's face.

The light scowled as it redoubled its attack and he was hit with a barrage of pain. He grit his teeth and continued on.

"Just-" The light's expression twisted and distorted with rage "_ -die _already! Die and never come back!"

His hands were starting to shake and his heart pounded in his chest.

"I'll always come back," He promised, biting back a cry of pain as he was hit with another affront. With one last surge of energy he pulled his shadows back, wrapping them around him like armour, then tapped into Yubel's power. "And I'm not going to die here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing the light of destruction is fun because you can bullshit its powers and you don't have to worry about how accurate it is to canon. When one of it's canonical powers is summoning a table anything is possible
> 
> Next chapter: Yusaku's not having a good time


	7. Chapter 7

When Yusaku woke up he was curled into a ball on the floor of the small cubicle, leg still throbbing with phantom pains. He winced, pushing himself up into a sitting position with a shaky arm, laying his back flat against the cold wall.

"Yusaku?" Ai asked tentatively. He ignored him.

He wanted to stay in here and never come out. He wanted to disappear. He wanted the whole world around him to disappear so he never had to go out and face his failures. He didn't know what he wanted.

How useless was he? He lost his best friend and all he could do was sit around feeling sorry for himself. He couldn't even bring himself to fucking stand up.

He belatedly realised he was crying. Great, now he had to go and break down in front of Ai; he could almost hear the teasing already and he really wasn't in the mood to put up with that, but no matter how much he tried to stop them the tears kept falling and his body was shaking with ugly sobs and it wouldn't _ stop. _

A tiny hand reached up to settle on his face, a tiny static shock shaking him out of his thoughts. He looked up, eyes meeting Ai's warm yellow ones and his partner leaned over from the duel disk, hugging the side of his face.

They stayed like that for a few minutes until Yusaku's sobs turned into sniffles and eventually subsided.

He wiped the last of the tears out of his eyes, then wrapped his hand around the small ignis, reciprocating the hug.

"This is nice," Ai mumbled "I mean, not the whole... everything right now, but the hug is nice."

"Are you okay?" Yusaku asked. The edges of his partner's body had been burned by the light, leaving the surface jagged and uneven. It looked painful.

"There's no way something like that could keep me down!" Ai pulled back, puffing out his chest "It's only minor stuff - I can fix it no problem."

He smiled softly. "I'm glad."

"Huh? You are?" Ai squinted "Where's Yusaku and what have you done with him?"

"Shut up," He said, but there was no anger behind it.

He pushed himself up and opened the door. Kusanagi was sitting at his desk, but he bolted upwards as soon as he saw Yusaku.

"Did you see what happened?" Yusaku asked.

"No, I lost connection near the end. What did I miss?"

He shifted in place, avoiding eye contact. "Takeru and Flame..."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Kusanagi went over to the second cubicle, carefully moving Takeru out of the cramped space. His friend's glasses fell crookedly on his face and his brows were furrowed like he was having a bad dream. On his wrist his duel disk was still lit up, but it was empty. Far too empty.

Yusaku helped move him so he was lying flat on his back, then Kusanagi called an ambulance.

Silence fell over them as they sat at the desk. Every now and then Kusanagi would type something on his computer, but Yusaku couldn't bring himself to do the same. Eventually the ambulance arrived, but he stayed in the truck. Kusanagi came back in when the sirens were fading into the distance.

"You don't have to do this," He said softly "We could help Judai's friends remotely, or get Blue Angel and Go Onizuka involved again. SOL Technologies and The Knights of Hanoi have also started mobilising-"

"I do." Yusaku cut him off "Judai sacrificed himself for me; I can't let that go to waste."

"Judai sacrificed himself to get you out safely. If you run back into danger it'll have been for nothing."

"You don't know that! You didn't even see it!" He clenched his fist "I have to save them. I can't let more people get hurt because of me."

"You're going to get _ yourself _ hurt."

He placed the duel disk on the desk and walked out, ignoring Kusanagi and Ai calling out after him. He needed some fresh air.

Half of him expected Judai to be there at one of the tables outside, ready to talk his ear off about cards or duel spirits or whatever. He wasn't. Of course he wasn't.

The sun was setting over the plaza, bathing the area in thick shadows cast by the surrounding buildings. No-one was around to see him, and he went the long way home.

He was angry. Angry at Kusanagi but mostly at himself, and above all he was upset. A million different emotions swirled up inside him - all of them bad. His hands were shaking again as he opened the door to his apartment and walked inside, brushing off Roboppi's cheery greeting and sitting on his bed.

Maybe he should just let Judai's friends fix this mess. He sure as hell kept fucking it up, and it wasn't like he knew much about what he was getting into anyway. He'd just keep running in blind until he died or the light got to him.

But they didn't know about the Tower of Hanoi, and they weren't hackers - they couldn't even access the original Link VRAINS without his help.

He could just give them the information he had and leave. After all, he wasn't a hero; he should act like it. Their avatars could be spread out anywhere between the two VRAINS networks though, and he could never track them down in time. Unless...

He booted up his computer and pulled up Link VRAINS' code, combing through it to find Judai's friends' profiles. Manjoume, Kenzan, and Johan had logged out just after he did, but Sho was still logged in. It didn't take a genius to guess what happened to him.

He buried his head in his hands. Of fucking course not all of them made it out.

This did mean that they were all in the same place though, so in theory he could contact them easily. Sending the code again remotely would be too risky, especially with their unsecured duel disks which meant-

Which meant that he'd have to visit them in person.

Pulling out his phone, he called Kusanagi who picked up immediately. "Yusaku! Are you okay."

He took a deep breath. "Yeah I'm fine - I just needed to think things through. I'll explain when I get back to the truck."

-

He couldn't believe he was actually doing this.

Their base of operations was in an expensive hotel, which was a terrible idea for a lot of reasons but they weren't locals so he guessed it made sense. Kusanagi had found their room number and now he stood in front of their door, his heart thumping in his chest.

He still had time to turn back. There was no way in hell he could afford to.

Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door. There was some yelling on the other side, and then a disgruntled-looking Manjoume opened it.

"Uh, who are you?" He sneered "We're busy right now so if you-"

"I'm Playmaker's friend," Yusaku said "I'm here to deliver a message."

Manjoume stared at him. He stared back.

"You might as well come in," Manjoume sighed, stepping aside "You're not fooling anyone, Playmaker."

He winced at that, but went inside anyway. He could handle this. He could handle a few people knowing his identity. After all, Revolver knew his identity - and Kusanagi and Ai and Takeru and Flame. None of them had used it against him.

Still, he hadn't thought he was _ that _ bad of a liar.

Everyone was crammed into the one room, Kenzan sitting on the floor while Johan hovered to the side. Judai and Sho were tucked into the bed, like they were just sleeping. He wished that was the case.

"We have a guest," Manjoume growled, storming over to a chair in the corner of the room. Yusaku stood at the door. Three pairs of eyes locked onto him.

"My name is Fujiki Yusaku," He said "You know me as Playmaker."

"Finally," A familiar voice came from the duel disk laid out on the desk "I was going to just expose your identity, but this makes things much easier."

"Flame!" Ai squealed, practically jumping out of his own duel disk "We thought you were dead!"

Johan chuckled as Yusaku placed Ai next to Flame, who immediately tried to pull the other ignis into a hug, much to his annoyance. "The little guy came running to me after his partner was defeated."

Yusaku nodded solemnly. It was reassuring to know that Flame had survived, but Takeru-

"Nope, I know that look." Johan said, standing up and walking over to him "You're blaming yourself."

"I-"

"You weren't there for him because you ran off on your own," Manjoume sneered "It was a stupid decision and now you've learned your lesson and come back to redeem yourself. Did I get everything?"

Johan flinched, forcing a smile "What Manjoume means is that-"

"I _ know _what I'm saying, Andersen. Listen: you made a mistake, and you're probably gonna make a load more before the day is over but you can't treat every defeat like the end of the world. Hell, I've made some monumental fuck ups in my time and I keep going. This is the light's fault - not yours - so stop moping and let's get on with it. We've got enough miserable bastards in this room already."

The room fell into a tense silence for a moment before Manjoume added "Well? What was that message you wanted to deliver?"

"The code to break through the firewall," Yusaku said, still processing what just happened "It's a one-time use."

Yeah, Manjoume could make mistakes. Manjoume wasn't him. He couldn't just mess up and let it slide like other people could. But at the same time he was right that he shouldn't be moping - they'd never get anywhere if he did that. They had to focus on taking the light down before it did irreversible damage to the network.

He took a moment to steady himself. They were going to defeat the light, and they were going to do it together. He owed it to Judai.

"We need a plan."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sho was actually almost spared from the light but then I realised there'd be too many blue haired people in one team  
(that's not actually the reason)
> 
> But Yusaku told some people his identity! Things are getting better! I'm sure this will continue throughout the rest of the fic with nothing getting in the way!
> 
> Next chapter: things get in the way


End file.
